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Stendhal Syndrome: a Psychological Response Among Tourists

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PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES ISSN 2380-727X http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/PCSOJ-3-125 Open Journal Review Stendhal Syndrome: A Psychological *Corresponding author Response Among Tourists Swarna Datta, MSc Independent Researcher Kolkata, WB 700045, India Swarna Datta, MSc* Tel. +91 8697223295 E-mail: [email protected] Independent Researcher, Kolkata, WB 700045, India Volume 3 : Issue 2 Article Ref. #: 1000PCSOJ3125 ABSTRACT Article History Stendhal Syndrome (SS) is a behavioral syndrome characterized by anxiety and affective Received: February 12th, 2017 and thought disturbances in response to art and often to culturally or historically significant Accepted: June 5th, 2017 places. The purpose of this review is to elucidate the clinical significance of SS and discuss Published: June 12th, 2017 the various approaches implemented towards understanding the condition. Our objective is directed towards promoting further research to understand the etiology of SS as a rare medical condition and to define other potential perspectives in its investigation. Citation Datta S. Stendhal Syndrome: A psy- chological response among tourists. KEY WORDS: Stendhal Syndrome (SS); Psychiatric condition; Clinical symptoms; Tourist city Psychol Cogn Sci Open J. 2017; 3(2): syndromes; Neuroaesthetics. 66-73. doi: 10.17140/PCSOJ-3-125 INTRODUCTION Stendhal Syndrome (SS) is a rare psychiatric condition characterized by a state of dizziness, panic, paranoia or madness caused by being exposed to artistic or historical artifacts or having witnessed too many of these artworks at the same time.1 Tourism has been identified as a potential cause of the emotional processes previously reported in the clinical cases of SS. Existing studies report the occurrence of similar emotional responses among tourists after visiting geographically and culturally distinct places as has been clinically manifested in a range of tourist city syndromes, discussed in detail in this paper.2 The recurrence of symptoms across mild emotional disturbances to psychoses that occur when some people visit certain cities, has drawn the attention of various researchers seeking to investigate SS and related syndromes from the perspective of medical sciences. It is towards this objective that this paper invites for further focus on the study of SS, emphasizing on the relevance of neuroaesthetics as a promising approach to the study, by offering a review of extant research on SS, and by pointing towards new paradigms for examining such phenomenon. AN OVERVIEW OF STENDHAL SYNDROME SS gets its name from an avid French traveler and writer, Marie-Henri Beyle, also known to the world as Stendhal.3 Stendhal drew from his experiences of travelling across the globe in his literary creations and is quite rightly known for introducing the French with the word “tourist” through his writings. This yen for travelling had led Stendhal to a multitude of emotional experiences, and it is one particular experience of visiting Santa Croce Cathedral, Florence, Italy in 1817 that is of significance here. Stendhal talks about how the rich culture and history that Italy unfolded to him through Copyright art stirred strong emotions in his heart. He experienced a condition which was emotionally ©2017 Datta S. This is an open ac- overwhelming and evoked in him a feeling of intense ecstasy and euphoria. The debilitating cess article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 condition was marked by a short episode of palpitation, dizziness, and the lack of physical 4 International License (CC BY 4.0), strength to even walk by himself. The description of Stendhal’s overpowering experience in which permits unrestricted use, his book based on the “Travel Disease” or “Art Disease” instilled the confidence in many distribution, and reproduction in tourists, who experienced anxiety and agitation during their trip to Italy, to talk about their any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. discomfort candidly. Psychol Cogn Sci Open J Page 66 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES Open Journal ISSN 2380-727X http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/PCSOJ-3-125 In 1979, an Italian psychiatrist, Graziella Magherini, followed by a sense of depersonalization and alienation. This the Chief of Psychiatry at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital, Flor- overpowering mental state was stimulated by Sigmund Freud’s ence, Italy, examined tourists, mostly brought directly from mu- lifelong fascination with the ideas of Acropolis and the Greek seums and art galleries, admitted under emergency conditions civilization. Aside from approaching such mental states as for sudden episodes of panic attacks and mental instability. The clinical manifestations, it has been treated as a state of extreme symptoms that were commonly observed among the 106 af- disillusionment. Given the multiplicity of such reported cases fected patients were identity crisis, physical and mental exhaus- it is worth addressing the role and exclusivity of places of tion, dizziness, and hallucination. Magherini’s book entitled “La paramount beauty or aesthetic value in stimulating SS among Sindrome di Stendhahl” identifies these clinical characteristics tourists.7 There has been more recent mention of an investigation as a reaction to the deep impression cast by historically signifi- of physiological attributes by a research group in Italy, who cant characters and the rich Italian culture encountered in the are measuring clinical parameters such as heart rate, blood patients’ travels. In particular, the book also discusses agitated pressure, and respiratory rate, relevant to SS among visitors of and psychotic responses to paintings or sculptures depicting his- the historically significant, Palazzo Medici Riccardi in Florence, torical revelations or wars.3 The intense emotions experienced Italy.8 by a prominent literary figure like Stendhal in response to the rich Italian history and art, led Magherini to associate related Despite various cases of SS being documented, clinical symptoms with that of SS. it is yet to be mentioned in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental EVIDENCE OF PRE-EXISTING RESEARCH IN STENDHAL Disorders - fifth edition (DSM-5). This could possibly be due SYNDROME to the inability of such clinically reported cases to meet the parameters of dysfunction necessary to qualify as a mental Beyond the obvious and intricate psychological responses health disorder according to the revised clauses of DSM-5. Of to various socio-cultural and religious aspects of travel, there particular importance is the failure to comply with the postulate is a potential and need for investigating other physiological stating that “the impairment in personality functioning and the conditions culminating in SS. This includes an examination of individual’s personality trait expression are not better understood genetic regulation, molecular and cellular signaling mechanisms, as normative for the individual’s developmental stage or socio- biochemical pathways, and affected neural networks underlying cultural environment.”7 this and other related conditions. Existent research on the syndrome is addressed primarily from the perspectives of There have been similar records of extreme emotional neuroaesthetics and neurophysiology. responses clinically manifested as behavioural syndromes in tourists visiting places rich in art, history, and culture, which will Recently, a large number of clinically reported cases of now be discussed in the form of other tourist syndromes in the SS have been intensively discussed beginning with an instance following section. in 2005, in which Amâncio5, a Brazilian neurosurgeon, reported the case of a Russian novelist who showed the symptoms of OTHER TOURIST CITY SYNDROMES SS. In 2009, Nicholson6 wrote about an episode of paranoid- psychosis experienced by a 72-year-old following his visit to Tourist city syndromes are an intriguing aspect of study in the Florence. Published in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, sense that it is commonly associated with cities that possess this case describes the patient’s eagerness to visit the Ponte distinct cultural and religious significance, and thus hold a Veccio Bridge; and having visited the site, of his experience of special meaning for the tourists. These cities seem to precipitate disorientation and “florid persecutory ideation”. Such paranoia characteristic reactions among certain visitors by virtue of even included references to international airlines, bugging of their reputations.2 The following paragraphs provide a brief rooms, and other strange and peculiar notions. These symptoms overview of the lesser known but widely experienced behavioral gradually subsided over three weeks of physical rest. syndromes similar to SS but named after cities, in terms of tourism and metaphorical associations. In 2010, Bamforth4 published evidences of similar symptoms as concluded from the experiences of the two The Venice Syndrome is a behavioral condition psychologists, Carl Gustav Jung and Sigmund Freud, both associated with Italy, where reportedly 51 men and women from of whom had reported symptoms pertaining to SS. In his Germany, France, USA, England, and other parts of the world autobiography, Jung talked about an incident in Pompeii where attempted to commit suicide between the years 1988 and 1995.2 he was mentally and physically overwhelmed by artwork. Those who survived following the suicide attempt confessed Under the spell of such an intense experience, he lost
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